Air Conditioner (A/C) Cage for $90 or Less

How to build a cage for your Air Conditioner (A/C) to prevent stealing for $90 or less. An A/C condensor on a Houston, Texas foreclosure I bought had been stolen long before I bought it. The idea of putting a brand-new 13 SEER unit into a neighborhood known for A/C theft was not attractive. I am told that the scrap metal dealers are doing thumbprint, photograph and 3 day waiting period now before paying for copper. The A/C cage will consist of 3 bars north/south and 3 bars east/west. See picture. This should provide more than adequate room to work on the unit and have un-restricted air-flow. The goal is to make the cage so the unit cannot be removed from the cage without destroying it.

Note, do all of this at your own risk and use good safety equipment like welding helmet, gloves, etc. Also, watch out for ants!

Get dimensions of A/C concrete slab and the height of the A/C unit to be installed.

Get rebar pre-bent into u-shaped pieces. Tell Texas Wide Sales Co Address: 5911 Schumacher Ln, Houston, TX 77057 Phone: (713) 783-0091 your dimensions and what you are trying to build. They’ll make 12 u-shaped pieces of rebar for $25 at the time of this writing in about 5 minutes.

Rent a house-current wire welder from a rental place like Aztec Rentals. Cost including wire and helmet: $65.

Lift concrete slab with a shovel or with a buddy or both and slip the lower parts of the U-shaped rebar under the slab with ends sticking up, or rotated over to be out of the way.

Install new condensor A/C unit. Turn it off.

Rotate U-shaped rebar back into position.

Slip box the condensor came in over the A/C unit to protect it from sparks and later paint. Pour water onto box so that it does not catch on fire while welding.

Complete cage by welding upper u-shaped bars onto lower bars. You may adjust the height as needed. Home welders use a lot of juice so plug it in to a 20 amp circuit if you can or you may have to make multiple trips to the breaker box to re-set the circuit.

Paint with rust-oleum rusty metal primer to keep from rusting.. Use a brush as spraying takes too much paint. Has a good red color that holds up so top coating may not be necessary. I just leave the primer.

Cut up box and remove it by sliding out from bars.Done. Cost is $90 or less. If you already have a welder or a buddy with one it is only like $30 for the rebar and paint. See attached picture.

12 thoughts on “Air Conditioner (A/C) Cage for $90 or Less”

This would be nice but its proven around here to not work. People just bolt cut their way thru the rebar and it doens’t slow them down one bit. We at A/C Cages� in Orlando Florida have been doing this business for years now and are the only licensed and insured company in Florida to do so. We have many fly by nighters who build cages like these and then the customers who shell out alot of money for nothing come to us when their unit it stolen again. By the way, using A/C Cages is a violation of the Registered Trademark of my company.

We build custom cages 36x36x36 approx 375.00 I would need a zip code to get shipping cost shipping is not bad my unit at this time are 1 pcs and lid opens a model number and brand of your ac unit helps me if you have it

I dont believe that is true, this method is very tough to crack because there is no lock. The method that AC cages uses, I believe, are much easier to breach. Great Idea, this is the way I’m going, just had a new unit installed and this is the way I’m going, thanks!

This would be nice but its proven around here to not work. People just bolt cut their way thru the rebar and it doens’t slow them down one bit.
We at A/C Cages� in Orlando Florida have been doing this business for years now and are the only licensed and insured company in Florida to do so. We have many fly by nighters who build cages like these and then the customers who shell out alot of money for nothing come to us when their unit it stolen again.
By the way, using A/C Cages is a violation of the Registered Trademark of my company.

Like most people, we don’t think about Copper Theft and the necessity of having an Air Conditioner Cage until we are the next victim. AC ARMOR has great security units at very good prices that can be shipped to your door. We had a similar setup until we ran into trouble when the unit had to get serviced, so we upgraded our set to the ARMOR I.

Copyright my butt. The man is telling people how he deters theft and you barge in promoting your trinkets and showing your trademark crap. I’m sure the neighbors non caged a/c is much easier than the rebar he’s using. Sell your stuff ok but f.off.

My first post didn’t go through for some reason…?
After having three (3 !!!) units stolen from rentals we had to try something. I have a friend that is using cages but we’ve started plastering our units with air conditioner alarm stickers and wiring into the alarms when available (only about half of them). So far, so good.

I wish the thieves would get prosecuted far harder for this type of theft. The worst part of all is that this is usually just for the scrap copper. They’re taking a $1,500 unit and gutting them for maybe $50 worth of copper. It’s nuts!

I’ve seen all these companies first hand bash each other about legal this, copywrite that, mine is better than thiers, blah, blah, blah. Here’s the deal, if you have someone willing to take the time to cut rebar then gut or remove your unit whenever there is an unprotected unit not 150′ away, then yeah spend money on something over elaborate. This rebar cage is just as good as some of these online competitors comparable to the assemble in 90 seconds crap or that junk sold in a common fastener supply store. There are a couple issues to the under $90 DIY cage. How do you service the unit? You have to take the thing apart, then start all over again. It looks like ass. Is that something you want your neighbors or future tennants looking at on a daily basis? Remedy: Find someone local to give you an actual quote on a custom fabrication. It will give you a clean look, be much more secure, and will be serviceable. Unless there is a monster unit sitting beside your building, it should cost between $250-$450 for a NICE cage. Don’t pay more unless you want certain designs, certain costly materials, or it to turn into an autobot. Joe Bullitt Steel Bullitt Co, KY Attached picture is of a cage that was built and installed for $300, meaning its cheaper and much better than any universal internet junk. Any LOCAL fabricator should be able to do this for you. Buy local, it helps in more ways than one.